


somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams

by lovelyflowersinherhair



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Gen, Mentioned Fred Andrews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-11-02 09:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20699849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyflowersinherhair/pseuds/lovelyflowersinherhair
Summary: Alice took a sip of her milkshake, and surveyed her choice of dining companions.





	somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on the instagram stories Skeet made yesterday. It contains mentions of character death (Fred Andrews). For the Southside-archive prompt 'regret'.

The silence at the diner was stifling, almost as oppressive as the heatwave that seemed absolutely unbreaking outside, and the four occupants of the booth each seemed unwilling to break it. What was there to say, really? There was nothing anyone  _ could _ say. 

Alice took a sip of her milkshake, and surveyed her choice of dining companions. 

A miscarriage of justice had conspired against the town of Riverdale, and Hiram and Hermione had managed to get themselves bailed out of prison, and that meant that she had subjected herself to them sat across the booth from herself and FP. To outsiders it might have appeared that the foursome was on a social call, even though Alice knew perfectly well FP and Hiram wouldn’t deign to go on a  _ double date _ with each other, even if she and Hermione had ever deigned to be friends. A greater miscarriage of justice was that she felt she couldn’t even  _ complain _ about the present one. 

Alice scowled.

“What?” Hermione demanded, breaking the silence. “What are you looking at me like that for?” 

“I understand that being  _ imprisoned _ made your Mayoral duties difficult to complete, but could you have not spoken against combining our Fourth of July parade with a  _ memorial _ parade for Frederick? It was somewhat...unfortunate, to say the least.” 

There. Alice had said something about the hideously inappropriate combination of patriotism and mourning, not that her outburst had seemed to have the affect on Hermione that she had longed for, given that the other woman was simply gaping at her, and FP had decided that an appropriate response to her show of emotion was to squeeze her knee beneath the table, neither of which was the response of fear that she had hoped to instill in the woman. Had she lost her touch during her time at the Farm? Alice shuddered to think. 

“Archie  _ wanted _ to--”

“And as adults one of us should have  _ stopped _ him,” she said. “Good god, dealing with those horrible people is obnoxious enough without having to hear Cheryl insist that ‘Jay Jay’ doesn’t approve of sharing his  _ death day _ with Fred.” She shook her head. “Thank god I got those children out of there. Even if it means that  _ I  _ have to deal with them. Clearly the child is hallucinating her brother.” 

“What was I supposed to say? No Ronnie, Archie  _ can’t _ combine the parade with a parade for his dad?” 

“It does seem...uncouth,” Hiram said after a moment. 

“Well, something needs to be done about that boy,” Alice continued. 

“Why isn’t Mary here?” 

“She went back to Chicago for the week,” FP said. “Archie told her he was fine, and that it was okay for her to go tie up some loose ends, and then…” 

“He smashed a car to pieces with a baseball bat.” Alice sighed. “It was the new principal’s.” 

“And…?”

“Why are you here, Hiram?” Alice was not amused in the slightest by Hiram Lodge’s presence in her field of sight, let alone the fact that he was out of jail. “Do you have anything to contribute to this discussion, or are you going to seek to annoy me beyond my capability to reason?” 

“Fred would  _ want _ us to help Archie,” Hermione insisted. 

Alice did not doubt that Fred’s excessively trusting nature would have led to him offering Hermione and Hiram’s offers of help, even though history had proven time and again that neither of the Lodges could be trusted. She didn’t want to think ill of the dead, but she wondered if Fred had managed to catch a lucky break after all, given that the dead couldn’t be implicated in Federal investigations, no matter how much Alice longed for Harold to suffer this fate. Alice, however, did not share those delusions. 

“Fred punched me!”

“A punch that you deserved,” Alice said. “Anyways, as I was  _ trying _ to say, we think that it was an  _ accident  _ that he destroyed the principal’s car. You see, it appears that it matches a car that that two of you own, that you gave to Archibald? Ring any bells?”

“Why would he do that?” 

Alice could not figure out if Hermione was  _ literally _ as dumb as a post, or if it was an attitude that she affected solely to annoy the living hell out of Alice, but, either way, Alice was not going to allow it to continue. 

“Because, he blames the two of you and your inappropriate behavior around him for his father’s death,” she said, her tone flat. “And, honestly, I can’t see why he wouldn’t.”

“Archie knew the consequences of betraying me,” Hiram said. “He knew what he signed up for.” 

“Archibald didn’t know how to read until he was eight years old,” Alice said. “He was groomed for god knows how long by his music teacher into a predatory…relationship, which I know for a  _ fact _ was not properly dealt with, and then you swan back into town and he wants to impress his girlfriend’s  _ family _ and doesn’t realize that you aren’t just a criminal, but a member of the Mafia. He didn’t even realize FP was the  _ Serpent King _ , for God’s sake.” She drew in a deep breath, before continuing. “He’s made poor choices and I don’t approve of 90% of them, but to say that he  _ knew _ what you were doing and made his bed and has to lie in it? Even if we ignore the fact that his  _ father _ just died, that’s not something I can stand for.”

She took another sip of her milkshake, forcing herself to choke it down. Elizabeth had been harranguing her for not eating again. 

“It’s because you’re out of jail,” FP said. “He’s behaving badly because he sees the two of you hanging around Riverdale, you know that, right?”

“What? We had nothing to do with what happened to Fred,” Hiram scoffed.

“Still,” FP said. “He wasn’t acting like this when the two of you weren’t here. Why didn’t you go back to the city? You were given permission to live there. I gave you permission.” 

“And leave Veronica?” 

He scoffed. “She’s better off, too. The whole town is.”

“FP,” Alice said. She was exhausted. “We need to focus on Archibald. I can pencil in another opportunity for us to discuss Hiram and Hermione’s inability to parent.”


End file.
